Comcast incompetence inspires more painful tales from customers

The horror: Man talks to six Comcast CSRs in 90 minutes, problem still unfixed.

You can check out any time you'd like, but you can never... well, you know the song.

Aurich Lawson

The hapless, rude Comcast employee who was recorded by a customer during what we can only hope was his worst moment couldn’t have imagined what was about to unfold over the next month. Since then, annoyed Comcast customers have been recording calls and publicly shaming the company into giving them what they were unable to get from long, cringe-worthy conversations with customer service representatives.

Further Reading

Comcast COO admits: "Retention agent... did a lot of what we trained him to do."

One of the latest examples came yesterday from Comcast customer Douglas Dixon of Sacramento County, who spoke with a half-dozen Comcast representatives over an hour and a half. Dixon posted a recording on the Internet and described the experience on reddit. After telling employee #6 that he was recording the call and would post it on the Internet if Comcast couldn’t fix his problem, she said, “That’s fine. There’s no need for you to threaten anybody.”

Dixon’s call was spurred by Comcast’s promise to him and other customers that their speeds would be increased. In Dixon’s case, an e-mail from Comcast on August 5 said his service would be boosted from 50Mbps to 105Mbps as soon as he restarted his modem.

That didn’t work. Dixon waited a week before trying again, and it didn’t work that time either. He eventually called Comcast on August 19 to fix a separate pricing problem.

“After the helpful representative fixed the billing problem with my services, she asked me if there was anything else she could do to help,” Dixon wrote. “At that point, I remembered the e-mail from Comcast, and I ask her to look into that issue. She verified that the speeds were increased in my area, and that I should have already been getting the higher speed. She ran some tests and verified that I was able to receive the higher speeds on my modem, but was not sure how to fix it as it was out of her area of expertise. She then asked me if it was OK to connect me with someone who would be able to fix the problem and I agreed.”

Comcast phone call.

The next representative put Dixon on hold while attempting to fix the problem, and the call dropped. Dixon called back and spoke to another employee, Kim, who was “Unable to understand what the doubling of the speed is” and “[did] not know how to fix the problem.”

Kim transferred Dixon, but to the wrong department, and then Kim called Dixon back to inform him that she fixed the problem. Of course, she hadn’t, and Dixon talked to another representative who began “telling me that I underst[ood] the e-mail wrong. He states that it was a limited time promotion that has passed. He told me that I needed to call in to receive the higher speed. He then tells me that I need to pay to get the higher speed. He then tells me that I need to add another line of service like phone service to get the doubled speed. I argue with him for about five minutes, but he insists that the offer expired and that he can no longer add the rate code. He then tells me that he will need to reboot the cable modem from his end. I go through that process, run a speed test, and still at 50Mbps. Still insists that I needed to call to receive this. I request to be connected with a higher level engineer that can help. He transfers me.”

The next rep is the one who told Dixon that “there’s no need for you to threaten anybody.” She eventually “transfer[red] my call without letting me know” and Dixon finally gave up and put down the phone.

“TL:DR—Comcast sucks,” he concluded. “I made a recording of my experience and I am hoping it goes viral and whatever is going on is fixed.”

“Comcast does not give a sh*t about customers—unless your story goes national”

A Comcast spokesperson told Ars, “We have spoken with Mr. Dixon and apologized to him for this poor experience. We are reinforcing the proper troubleshooting with our frontline employees so they can help ensure our customers enjoy the fastest speeds possible. We also are working with Mr. Dixon to make sure he’s getting the speed he was promised.”

Dixon is just one of numerous Comcast customers who have concluded that publicly shaming the company is the only way to get their problems fixed, however. Besides the ones we’ve written about already, there are several others, including customer Dann Furia, who wrote last week, “In order to avoid Comcast’s notorious ‘Unreturned Equipment’ fees, I filmed myself properly returning all their equipment—I now owe $1320 in ‘Unreturned Equipment’ and other fees.”

Furia reported trying 25 times over six months to resolve the massive billing problem, without success. “Then, after my Comcast’s Notorious Unreturned Equipment Fees post topped the Reddit front page four days ago and my story received national attention, Comcast’s Corporate office left me five messages in 18 hours.” Furia wrote that this “sends [a] clear message: Comcast does not give a sh*t about customers—unless your story goes national.”

The experiences of Comcast customers aren’t universally bad, of course. One reddit thread is documenting the positive experiences customers have had, but there is enough on the bad side of the ledger to suggest a real problem.

Comcast has promised to reform its ways, but the instructions it gives its own employees will make meaningful changes difficult to achieve. Today, one reddit user who claims to work for Comcast explained the pressures customer service reps are under: "I can not help you to the best of my ability of a number of reasons. One: we are timed on our calls. Each call must be less than 11 minutes on average. So if your agent is doing bad on time for the day expect him to try and rush things a bit. Two: our calls are graded on first calls resolution. That means if you call back with in less than a week for ANYTHING, it counts against us. Third: We must make a portion of our calls into upsells, so expect to ALWAYS feel like someone wants to sell you something when you call into comcast."

Further Reading

Training materials explicitly require a "sell" phase, even in support calls.

“Working in a slave pit would almost be preferable than working here,” the reddit user continued. “It is hell. Every call is like waiting for a pot of boiling water to tip on you. I can not stand people yelling at me and I fight very hard not to resort to being childish and yelling back. I know your issue, believe me. Not all of us are morons. But if you think you have it bad a customer, try being the one who has to take the anger of everyone who hates your company.”

Comcast is already the biggest Internet and TV provider in the country and is trying to become even bigger by purchasing Time Warner Cable. Public Knowledge Senior VP Harold Feld argues that Comcast's poor customer service could provide grounds for the Federal Communications Commission to block the deal.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have been rated by the American Customer Service Index as the two most hated companies in their industry, with Comcast barely avoiding last place. TWC customers have bitterly complained about their company, yet they have told regulators they fear things could get even worse after a merger with Comcast.